A country boy and son of a politician, James Gordon grew up on the land around Perth, and worked as a farmer in the years before the war.

He enlisted in the army 1940 and was in sent to the Middle East in 1941. It was in Syria he won the Victoria Cross, the result of an single handed attack on a machine gun post, killing four men with his rifle and Bayonet.

UNE Nathan Wyse talks to ABC's Kelly Fuller about the life and exploits of James Gordon.